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Study guide
LESSON ELEMENTS
LEARNING AIMS
What learners should know at the end of the lesson. Taken from CAPS.
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY
New terminology to extend understanding of the subject as part of this lesson.
DEFINE
Definitions of concepts to understand the content.
IMPORTANT
Explain misunderstandings; possible confusion regarding existing knowledge.
TIPS
Any information other than the content, to guide learners through the learning process.
SAMPLE
FOR THE CURIOUS
Encouragement to do in-depth research about the content. Expand the activity and exercise to such an extent that learners are encouraged to explore. For gifted learners: expanded exercises. For Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN): explain the need to complete the basic questions to achieve a passing mark.
ACTIVITY
Questions throughout the lesson that must be done in order to test the knowledge of the lesson completed.
EXERCISE
In conclusion of the specific Unit. Formative assessment.
CORE CONTENT
Emphasise the core of content; in-depth explanation of a specific section of the lesson; needs to be understood.
STUDY/REVISION
Time spent to study the content in conclusion of the Unit and in preparation for the test or examination.
SAMPLE
UNIT 1
LIFE AND LIVING AND PROCESSING SAMPLE
LEARNING AIMS:
LESSON 1: Photosynthesis SAMPLE
• Why can a plant make its own food but an animal cannot?
• What is needed for photosynthesis to happen?
• How do plants make food and store food?
• Why do plants need water?
• Can plants live in the dark?
• Why are plants mostly green?
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY
• photosynthesis
• chlorophyll
• carbon dioxide
• oxygen
• glucose
• molecules
• conditions
• anchorage
• microbes
• fertile
1.1 Plants and food
Green plants are just like factories! They make food for themselves and every animal on Earth using sunlight energy, water and the gas carbon dioxide. They also recycle the air and make oxygen for us to breathe.
QUESTIONS:
1. What happens in a factory? Why do you think we can say plants are like factories?
2. Why can we say that plants make food for themselves and every animal on earth?
Scientists have found out exactly how plants are able to do all these things. Let’s take a closer look at how scientists did this and see how plants make food for themselves and us.
The process of photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to change the energy from sunlight into energy for food. Plants change light energy from the sun into food energy. Photosynthesis happens in all green parts of a plant. Leaves are usually the greenest parts. So plants do this mostly in their leaves.
The word photosynthesis actually has two parts: photo = light and synthesis = to make or put together. So it means to use light to make something (in this case, food). FOR THE CURIOUS
The photosynthesis song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1_uez5WX1o&feature=youtu.be FOR THE CURIOUS
Do you remember learning about photosynthesis in Grade 5? Plants need certain things to photosynthesise.
FOR THE CURIOUS
SAMPLE
Scientists have a term for substances like chlorophyll that have a colour. They call them pigments. There are other pigments in plants. Can you think of their colours? There are pigments in your body too! Where do we find them? What do they do?
There are some important requirements for photosynthesis to happen:
1. Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green substance that plants use to capture light energy from the sun. Chlorophyll is very important. Without chlorophyll plants cannot use the sunlight energy to make food. Also, oxygen levels in the air will go down. If that happens, plants and animals will suffocate.
2. Sunlight
Sunlight has energy. Plants use this energy to make sugars from water and carbon dioxide.
3. Water
The roots of a plant absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Water is a solvent in all living things. Dissolved substances are moved around the body to where they are needed. Just like you, plants have veins for this movement. They move minerals from the roots upwards. They move sugars from the leaves downwards. Photosynthesis can only happen in a water solution. Water is also important because it provides support to the plant to keep it upright. Like you, plants have skeletons. But unlike you, many plants have water skeletons.
4. Carbon dioxide
The plant absorbs or takes in carbon dioxide from the air through little holes. These holes are found all over the plant, mostly under the leaves.
5. Soil
The soil provides mineral nutrients and water for the plant that are necessary during photosynthesis. Soil also provides anchorage to the plant, otherwise the plant cannot stand up straight.
FOR THE CURIOUS
These holes also allow other gases and water to enter or leave the plant. They do the same job as your mouth and nose when you breathe; the same job as the pores in your skin when you sweat.
How does photosynthesis occur?
Plants use chlorophyll, sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food.
• Chlorophyll captures the sunlight energy.
• This energy splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen.
SAMPLE
• The oxygen is released into the air.
• The hydrogen is used with the carbon dioxide to make glucose (sugars).
• The sugars are moved from the leaves to other parts of the plants where they are stored.
• The water in the plant veins carries the sugars. When the sugars reach the storage parts they are changed into starch.
• Plants can store the starch in the following places:
o leaves (cabbage, spinach, lettuce)
o fruits (apple, banana, peach)
o stems (sugar cane)
o seeds (wheat, mealie)
o flowers (nasturtium, broccoli, cauliflower)
o roots (carrot, beetroot)
Here is a simple diagram illustrating the process of photosynthesis:
A really good website on photosynthesis: http://www.realtrees4kids.org/sixeight/letseat.htm
ACTIVITY 1: Dramatise the process of photosynthesis
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Your facilitator will explain to you how to act out the process of photosynthesis.
2. Characters needed for this dramatisation:
• Narrator to describe the process. This can be a facilitator or a learner. It might be a good idea to make short notes from the information above to remember in what order everything is happening.
• Sun – this learner can dress in yellow and perhaps get some tin foil or shiny paper to decorate their head or body to show the light and heat energy that the sun produces.
• Plants – a few learners can dress in green and perhaps tie a few strings to their feet to represent roots. They need to hold some rice or shiny glitter in their hands or their pockets to show that the water evaporates after photosynthesis.
• Rain/water – a few learners can dress in blue and perhaps have some rice, shiny glitter, small pieces of tin foil or something similar to represent the rain falling.
• Carbon dioxide – attach signs to some learners’ chests that say ‘CARBON DIOXIDE’ and dress them in purple.
• Oxygen – attach signs to some learners’ chests that say ‘OXYGEN’ and dress them in orange.
• Glucose energy as fruit and vegetables – dress up or make posters from scrap cardboard to show large carrots, apples, potatoes or something similar.
• Some learners need to be animals who breathe out carbon dioxide and eat plants. You can make masks from paper plates with eyes cut out.
SAMPLE
QUESTIONS:
1. Why do plants die when there is a drought?
2. Design a poster to explain the process of photosynthesis. You can use sentences and short paragraphs, but make sure you use many illustrations.
1.2
Food from photosynthesis
• iodine • solution
• indicator
• starch • test IMPORTANT
Photosynthesis is the process inside plants that changes the energy from the sun’s light into a form of energy that animals can eat and use to carry out their life processes.
Plants change the glucose into starch, for example mealies (mealies and maize flour), rice (rice flour and rice) and wheat (flour).
Plants then store this food in different parts of the plant that an animal will eat. They can store it in their leaves, stems/roots, flowers, fruits or seeds.
QUESTIONS:
Look at the images below of different plant products. For each image, identify which part of that plant we eat (e.g.: When we eat an apple, are we eating the leaf, the stem, the root, the fruit or the seed of the plant?) Use the space provided to write down your answers.
Plant
Part that we eat
Cabbage
Tomatoes
Plant
Part that we eat
SAMPLE
Potatoes
Broccoli
Celery
Carrots
Sunflower seeds
SAMPLE
We know that plants make glucose (a sugar) but they store starch. Let’s find out what the difference is.
